Doen Beijenszoon

Nothing of the below comes from my own research, apart from the lines of descendance (i.e. the part after 1700) given in the paragraph "Doen and I" . Because the Doen Beijensz literature solely is in dutch, many people born abroad have not been able to get acquainted with their ancestors, hence this page dedicated to Doen.

Memorie- and Vicarielanden

In the fourteenth century it became customary amongst the well-to-do to instruct the church to have an annual mass in their memory, on their day of death. At the same time, there was given attention to the livin in need, e.g. there was given bread to the poor. The payment of the cost of all this was secured by the profit from a certain piece of land, set aside for this purpose. The name of such a piece of land, memorieland, is related of course to the memorial service.

One could also take this one step further, and establish an allowance for the priest (this was before the reformation) and the sexton, e.g. to perform a weekly mass. Such an allowance was called a prebende, the land securing this allowance was called vicarieland. A vicarie was often linked to an altar in the church.

Because the property of the land was inherited by the children of the founder of a memorie or a vicarie, the administration of the property of these pieces of land contains valuable genealogic information. Also after the reformation, these memoriebooks are still kept, they are transformed into leggers or blaffaards, in which all changes are written down.Some of these administrations are kept until late into the 18th century, after that the land is regarded as "normal" inheritance.

The ancestors of Doen Beijensz. the younger

NB: in this line we have kept the version of C. Hoek, who lets Neeltje Wollebrandts enter in generation V, in contrast with the Doen Beijensz book, which lets her marry in generation VII.

Generation I

Dirck Rutghersz, mentioned in 1337.

Generation II

Rutgheer Diddericksz., takes a salting between Hoogvliet and Pernis from the Lord of Putte, together with Jacob Jan van Moerdrecht, Scildman Pietersz and Hughe Buest Maenkensz on 19 jun 1357. They are to put dikes around it, the polder is later called Rughezand (Roozand) in Pernis

Generation III

Beye Rutgersz., has land on lease in Poortugaal in 1378 and 1379, leases the taxes on beer in Poortugaal, 1379. In 1400 he is mentioned as owner of land in Hoogvliet.

Generation IV

Beijen Beijensz. Hij founds, together with his mother, a memorie in de Versnellehoek. He leases in 1395 and 1396 some land along the dike betweeen Poortugaal and Deijffel from Zweder of Abcoude, Lord of Putten. Beijen died before 8 june 1408, and was married to Lijsbeth.

Generation V

Doen Beijensz, vassal of the Lord of Putten in 1429, took part in the building od dikes around the oude land van Strijen in 1436. He founded a memorie in the Versnellehoek, and died before 11 September 1452. His first wife was called Margriet, she founded a memorie in Poortugaal, and died in 1446. Beije Doens (generation VI) is almost certainly born from this marriage. His second wife was Neeltje Wollebrandt Jans, she was a daughter of Wollebrant Jan Bootsz and Lijsbeth. It is not clear from which marriage the other children are.

Generation VI

Beije Doensz., vassal of the Lord of Putten in Poortugaal 1452, died before 8 Jan 1485, was alderman of Poortugaal in 1458 and1462. He founds a memorie in Nieuw Rhoon, and was married to Lijsbeth.

Generation VII

Doen Beijensz, de younger, exercises his right to take on lease the land his father had in lease on 28 Jan 1485. He was alderman of Poortugaal in 1491 and 1507, founder of the Grote Memorielanden in that city, maks his will 6 January 1513, and died before 1515. Together with his wife Aeskin (Haasje) he had 8 children, the beginning of the dynasty.

The descendants of Doen Beijensz.

The basis of the genealogy of Doen Beijnsz. is of course the administration of the ownership of the memorie- and vicarielands. In addition to that, we have the Geslachtsboom van Driel, a genealogy made by the 17th century genealogist Matthijs van Balen, in which he states that the family decends from the Lords of Driel. This proved to be an "inaccuracy", probably the family wanted to see their social status of the 17th century reflected in their ancestors.
The data of van Balen have been verified, and completed by searching the archives, which in 1989 resulted in the publication of de Parenteel van Doen Beijensz. (see below). Because this book list the decendants along female lines as will, there iare an enormous amount of descendants by the rime we have reached the year 1700, this is about the time where the book stops. Click here to get a file with the most abundant names in the book.
The book is an important research tool for almost everybody who has ancestors in the Hoekse Waard or on the island of IJsselmonde, because most people decend from Doen in some way or another. It can save years of digging in archives. It also is a plea for searching the blaffaards: who knows what other 15th century ancestors are waiting to be discovered there!

Influential families

The book is not only an overview of the decendants of Doen Beijensz, but also an overview of the government of the Hoekse Waard and IJsselmonde between 1500 and 1700. The people in it were generally amongst the upper class of the population, and held public offices like alderman, sheriff, and dike reeve.Bbecause they were not likely to marry a party of a lesser social class, the family kept their involvement in the local government.
The descendants of Doen are therefore well represented amongst the acts, partly because they wrote them tehmselves (as alderman) or put their seal on them, partly because thet were more likely to buy or sell property than the less well-to-do. The book has references to the moste important acts.
Also it occurred quite often that two descendants married each other, most of the times they were only
remotely related. This can lead to a large kwartierverlies (inbreeding is a less polite word with the same meaning), as is shown in the next section.

the Doen top-10

To show just in how many ways one can descend from Doen, I intend to make a top-ten list of Doen descendents. If you think you belong in this list also, just send me an e-mail. The lines of descendency are given without any criticism (even I do have some in a few cases!), they are meant to make the phenomenon known, and to bring people in contat with one another. (Should you want to contact one of the authors, you can ask us for their e-mail address).